View full sizeHelen H. Davis/The Denver PostThis April 11, 2000 photo shows William Dean Singleton, CEO, vice-chairman and president of MediaNews corp. left, with Richard Scudder, chairman of the board for MediaNews Corp. after the announcement that The Denver Post won the Pulitzer for breaking news reporting in the Columbine tragedy. Scudder died Wednesday, July 11, 2012 at his home in Atlantic Highlands, N.J. He was 99. William Dean Singleton, the other founder of Denver-based MediaNews, confirmed the death.

— Richard B. Scudder, a pioneer in New Jersey newspapers — and in inventing a process to recycle them — died Wednesday at his Navesink home. He was 99. A Newark native, Mr. Scudder was the co-founder and former chairman of MediaNews Group Inc. A former reporter and a third-generation newspaperman, he served for 20 years as publisher of the Newark Evening News, at one time the state’s most powerful newspaper. Mr. Scudder later formed a partnership with William Dean Singleton, the former chairman of the Associated Press. Their company, MediaNews Group Inc., owned a string of newspapers in New Jersey, including the Gloucester County Times of Woodbury; the Daily Journal in Elizabeth; and the Daily Advance of Dover. They also owned dozens of papers from Ohio to California. Mr. Scudder was remembered as a "newsman’s newsman," who loved being in newsrooms and meeting reporters and editors. He was a hands-on leader who enjoyed visiting his papers and would often take out a group of journalists for lunch or a beer, and to talk shop. "He believed a newspaper was the heart and soul and conscience of a community. He believed the editorial page had to set the agenda for the community. He was a newsman’s newsman," said Singleton, Mr. Scudder’s business partner for 30 years, who called Mr. Scudder his closest friend. Singleton, the chairman of MediaNews, said he visited Mr. Scudder on Sunday. Star-Ledger transportation writer Mike Frassinelli was one of the reporters invited out for a beer. He met Mr. Scudder around 1990, when Frassinelli worked for the MediaNews-owned York Dispatch in York, Pa.

"He seemed really interested in the craft of reporting. He was talking to people who were 50 years younger than him," Frassinelli recalled. Mr. Scudder was also remembered as a devoted family man and a benefactor and environmentalist, who supported girls in a group home in Red Bank; donated land to a Monmouth County conservation group; and even pitched in to cover roof repairs at the Red Store, a country store and deli, located in an 1800s building near his home. Mr. Scudder had a hand, too, in inventing the recycling of newsprint. In the early 1950s, after a news dealer came to him with the idea, Mr. Scudder tested a process to remove ink from newsprint so that it could be recycled, according to the Paper Industry International Hall of Fame in Appleton, Wisc. Mr. Scudder was admitted to the hall in 1995. He went on to found Garden State Paper Co. in Garfield, which grew into one of the largest newspaper recycling companies in the world. Star-Ledger Publisher Richard Vezza, who worked for several MediaNews papers in New Jersey, called Mr. Scudder an "amazing individual." "The things that he and his family did were amazing," Vezza said. "It’s a life that’s worth a biography." Mr. Scudder was born May 13, 1913, into a newspaper family. His grandfather, Wallace Scudder, founded the Newark Evening News and his father, Edward Scudder, ran it.

View full sizeCraig F. Walker/The Denver PostThis Sept. 15, 2003 photo shows Richard B. Scudder, co-founder and former chairman of MediaNews Group Inc. Scudder died Wednesday, July 11, 2012 at his home in Atlantic Highlands, N.J. He was 99. William Dean Singleton, the other founder of Denver-based MediaNews and former chairman of The Associated Press, confirmed the death.

Richard Scudder worked as a reporter for the Boston Herald before joining the Evening News as a reporter in 1938. He took over as publisher in 1952. Mr. Scudder sold the Evening News in 1970, Singleton said, and the successor company, Media General, closed the landmark paper in 1972. "That was a sad day" when it closed, recalled Mr. Scudder’s daughter, Jean Scudder. "The family’s legacy had gone back a long time." Mr. Scudder and Singleton’s partnership began with the purchase of the Gloucester County Times in 1983, and grew to include 61 dailies and 126 nondailies, in 12 states. The company also owns an Alaska TV station and radio stations in Texas, and is one the nation’s largest newspaper companies. Its eight New Jersey papers were sold in 1997 and 2000. Mr. Scudder served as chairman from 1985 through 2009. Mr. Scudder graduated from Princeton University and was a trustee of Princeton University’s Environmental Institute, Rutgers University and New Jersey State University. He also received an honorary degree from Monmouth University. He served in the Army during World War II, earning a Bronze star. Mr. Scudder remained with the Army in Europe until 1946, helping civilians take over newspapers that had been run by the Nazis, according to Nancy Conway, editor of the Salt Lake Tribune. Mr. Scudder’s wife, Elizabeth Shibley Scudder, died in 2004 at age 83. He is survived by three daughters, Jean Scudder of Augusta, Maine; Carolyn Miller of Devin, Pa.; and Holly Difani of Arroyo De Seco, N.M.; a son, Charles Scudder of Portland, Ore.; and eight grandchildren. Burial will be private, and a memorial service will be held July 28 at Rumson Presbyterian Church. Arrangements are by Thompson Memorial Home in Red Bank.